Wireless telecommunications networks are known. In a cellular system, radio coverage is provided to user equipment, for example, mobile telephones, by geographical area. Those geographical areas of radio coverage are known as cells. A base station is located in each geographical area to provide the required radio coverage and support communication with the user equipment. A base station may support more than one cell providing coverage in the same geographical area. User equipment in the area served by a base station receives information and data from that base station and transmits information and data to that base station. Information and data transmitted by a base station to user equipment occurs on frequency channels of radio carriers known as downlink carriers. Information and data transmitted by user equipment to a base station occurs on frequency channels of radio carriers known as uplink carriers.
An emerging function for user equipment is that of device-to-device proximity services, where user equipment can communicate directly between them with no or little network involvement. In particular, it is desired to provide techniques for device-to-device discovery and device-to-device communications for both public safety and non-public safety scenarios. To support this, two types of resource allocation schemes have been introduced namely mode 1 and mode 2 resource allocation schemes for device-to-device communication transmission. Mode 1 can only be used when a transmitting user equipment is in coverage and requires the transmitting user equipment to request radio resources from the network for every transmission or for series of transmissions. Mode 2 can be used when a transmitting user equipment is in coverage or out of coverage and the transmitting user equipment autonomously selects from a pool of radio resources (preconfigured or provided by the network) for every transmission. However, the provision of device-to-device proximity services can lead to unexpected consequences. Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved technique for controlling devices within wireless telecommunications networks.